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It was at that point Malachi joined us at the table. With a simple nod he encouraged Missolis to continue what she had been saying a moment ago.
“The four of us will lead you, and our people, to the Citadel,” said Missolis, “And we will ensure every single rebel makes it through that passage.”
“All of them?” I asked, my eyes widening. “There must be more than a hundred of you…”
“One hundred and twenty-six,” she grinned.
Malachi gave me sidelong glance. He didn’t have to say I told you so; it was written on his face.
“I… do you really think we can get everyone through?” I asked. “You said yourself, the Citadel is going to be full of demons who will be looking for you. For us. A small group infiltrating a city is one thing, but you’re talking about sneaking a whole host in right under Abaddon’s nose.”
“If we do it right,” said Missolis, “If we are clever, and quiet, we can make this work.”
Malachi glared at me from across the table. “This isn’t going to be a problem for you, is it Sarakiel?”
All four demons regarded me suspiciously. I already knew how Malachi felt, but the guarded looks they were all giving me didn’t match up with the conversation I’d had with him earlier. I realized after a moment what he was alluding to.
I was an angel, a Lightbringer; it was part of my job to stop demons entering Earth. Malachi had taken my insistence to go alone and twisted it to suit his needs. I’d just been told an entire legion worth of demons was going to make the passage and enter Earth—under my watch—and I’d hesitated, all but confirming his suspicions in their eyes.
It was clear they were doubting my intentions and my motives.
“I’m sorry,” I said, “I didn’t mean… of course, I want all of you to escape this place. I’m only worried about the logistics of getting one hundred and twenty-six demons into a heavily defended Citadel unnoticed. I need this to work.”
Missolis, her eyes narrowed, nodded. “As do we. That is why we have come up with this plan. Like it or not, this is our only chance to get everyone out.”
“Why now?”
“The passage only opens in response to Light. It was not made by demons, but perhaps by angels—or maybe by God Herself. Even Abaddon cannot open it whenever he wants to; he needs the one thing no demon has. Light.”
“The demons you rescued me from—they’d wanted to sell me to an Overlord. Did they mean Abaddon? Did they know I was the key to this passageway?”
“Not likely,” Missolis paused. “They wouldn’t have been told why your Light was valuable, only that they’d be rewarded highly for turning you in. No Overlord would risk their subservient keeping such a prize for themselves, they would have handed you in to Abaddon themselves.”
“And you know this because?”
“The answer is self-evident, isn’t it?”
“You used to be one… an Overlord.”
“We all have our roles to play, even in Hell. I didn’t arrive here and immediately decide to become a rebel, most of us were once cogs in Abaddon’s machine.”
“How did you come back from that?”
“I didn’t. Not all the way. But as you’ve seen for yourself, we are capable of making our own decisions down here. We aren’t beholden to our programming, the chains that have tied us down since our creation. We can be who we choose to be, and right now, I choose to lead these demons to their salvation—with your help.”
Watching her, examining her burning amber eyes, I knew she was leaving out much of her story. If Overlords are the rulers of Hell, her life must have been one of relative opulence and comfort. She would have had demons doing everything for her, subordinates to boss around.
How someone just drops all of that and decides to fight against it… she must have seen something, experienced something that shattered her worldview, or stirred up whatever goodness was left in her. Then again, I was probably being naïve. The truth was likely way more nuanced than that, an idea that I was only just getting to grips with.
“You said we need Light to open the passage,” I said. “I don’t know how much Light I have left in me, but it can’t be much and it won’t regenerate. I’m not sure I have enough.”
“If you don’t, we’ll have to break our way back out of the Citadel and escape. But I’m willing to take the risk, we all are.”
“There will be casualties…”
Missolis nodded. “I know. But you are the only option we have. I can’t remember the last angel who made it out of the Pit with even a sliver of Light left in them, and with Heaven abandoned we may not see another angel at all. You, though… you might think you don’t have much, but you are like a shining beacon in this place of perpetual darkness.”
“For good and for ill. They will be looking for me, and, not to sound insensitive, but I have a decidedly non-demonic appearance. I know how to hide my wings, but there’s not much I can do about the rest of me.”
